Jene Green On Blogger

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Decision day for health care in the House (AP)

AP - President Barack Obama is traveling to Capitol Hill on Saturday to try to close the sale on his signature health care overhaul, facing a make-or-break vote in the House certain to be seen as a test of his presidency.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Ft. Hood suspect reportedly shouted `Allahu Akbar' (AP)

AP - Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar!” before opening fire, the base commander said Friday.

12 Surprisingly Simple Ways to Get More Done

There are a ton of things going on with my business, and people are often surprised to find that I’m still doing practically everything by myself. A question I often get asked is “How do you do it all?”

The Secret is Written on the Wall

There is no secret. I get more done because I work longer hours than most of you. Everyone sees me out and about during the week and people are always jealous, but they never realize the time I put in every single night when they are watching TV, and all the hours I put in during every single weekend when everyone else is doing anything but work.

Productivity is Still Important

Having said that, there are a few little things I learned along the way that makes me more efficient. After all, when I get more done with less time, I can choose to a) relax more or b) make more money by taking on more. Let me share them with you today.

Stop Believing the Damn Lie that Multitasking is Good – No one can possibly multi-task. We can handle multiple tasks and prioritize, but no one can ever do two things at once. Stop distracting yourself with multiple projects and get one thing done, then move on to the next.
Stop Checking Your Email/Twitter/Facebook Account Constantly – I love technology, but all these alerts and Blackberrys only slow down the time it takes to finish whatever you are doing. Turn them off.
And When You Read Them, Respond Right Away – We all do this. Whenever we read an email, many of us never respond right away. Then, we spend more time looking at the subject title again and again, and when we do respond, we have to re-read the email again. How efficient is that? Read it, respond, or send it to the trash can.
Be Ready Early – Prepare for your calls and meetings a day early, and then set your meeting reminders to 5 minutes before the actual event. There’s no need for a 15 minute warning just so you can click on snooze many more times than once.
Write Down What You Will Do Next – If you have blank out every once in a while, just write down what you are doing on a piece of paper so you can remind yourself when you stare at the screen and forget. This happens to people often when they are trying to multitask. Stop.
Wear a Headphone – If you are in a noisy environment, or have a gossipy neighbor, you may want to check with your boss to see if you can wear a headphone. Office rumors are interesting, but they won’t be your coworkers anymore if you cannot get your work done and get fired./li>
Learn to Say No – Tell them you are busy. It’s okay. Everyone needs to learn to respect your time.
Sit Away from Hot Spots – Or at least move your monitor so you don’t see Joe and Jessica every time they walk by to the coffee area.
Software Could Help – I use a software that turns the whole screen black when I write call Writeroom. It’s for Mac but they also have a Windows equivalent called Darkroom. At the very least, turn off all programs that sends out alerts when you are working.
Turn Off the Freaking Phone – If you hear this message, it means that unlike you, I’m actually working. You can leave a message if you’d like but wouldn’t it have been easier for the both of us if you sent me an email instead?
Set a Schedule – You can’t possibly work 24/7, so block out a time where you can be interrupted by doing tasks that don’t need much concentration.
Clean Up Your Desk – Everyone who can’t keep their desks clean always say that they know exactly where everything is. Sure, but they also spend countless minutes looking over them every time they need to find anything. A clean desk offers less distractions, guaranteed.

There are a ton more ideas obviously. How do you stay focus and get more done?

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Thursday, November 5, 2009

People are so gross sometimes about what is in their bedrooms

Some people will eat in their bedrooms whatever they feel like. They will leave crumbs on the ground. All that ends up happening with these crumbs is that there are bugs that will start to be around the room all the time. Too many bugs make it feel like we are outside no matter what.

It is really gross to walk into some one’s room and see that they have bugs and dirty dishes all over the room. I don't understand how some people can live that way. It's as if they never had someone telling them how disgusting it really is to live like that.

Everyone seems to be into this whole going green thing

It seems like everyone is trying to go green in order to try and become more popular with the press.

Every time I see someone that decides to go green it makes me hate them. It makes me not want to watch all of their new movies or other things.

It just makes them less popular to me. I really think that if people were to study the environment a little bit more then they wouldn't try so hard to try and fix the environment.

I really hate that people don't study things before they try to fix them.

Teenagers are so annoying

They are extremely dramatic. They think that by the time they hit sixteen they are old enough to make all their own decisions. My sister’s daughter is like that.

She just turned sixteen and thinks that she knows everything. She also thinks that she can do no evil. Teenage girls are also extremely dramatic. Now that she knows everything, she thinks that there is nothing that she can do wrong.

Everything she does seems to be the right thing to do all the time. I wish that she realized that she isn't always right and doesn't know everything like she thinks she does.

I love going to the country

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shane-h/

I like going to visit for a while. After a while I like to go back to civilization. When I went away to college, it was in a small town.

It made me really frustrated to go this tiny town where there was nothing to do. It is kind of fun to visit people in small towns for a little while.

I just hate having to fend for myself in a small town. It is a good thing my profession requires me to live in a big city in order to succeed.

I would hate being stuck in a small town for my whole life with nowhere to shop for all the things that I need all the time.

Israel: Weapons would let Hezbollah fight a month (AP)

AP - Israel said Thursday that the arms seized in its largest-ever haul would have given Hezbollah firepower to bombard the country for a month and urged the world to focus on the threat from the Lebanese militants’ chief backer, Iran, rather than assailing Israel.

Should I Buy This Gadget? Here’s a Helpful Flowchart

Click below or on the thumbnail above to see the whole thing.

Credit to Scordit.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

I have never broken a bone in my body (or anyone else's for that matter)

Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/93376699@N00/

I don’t intend to ever change that. I appreciate having a body that is whole and healthy. But if I had to pick a bone to break, I would choose… man, this is harder than I thought it would be.

If I broke a leg, I would have to use crutches and wear a little boot thing. If I broke a finger or an arm, I couldn’t do things like write, play the piano or violin, or play tennis. If I broke a rib, it would probably hurt to breathe.

I don’t think I could ever willingly pick a bone to break if I had to. It’s just that each bone has its purpose and I wouldn’t enjoy any of them being broken.